Coles Express deploys targeted ad and music streaming

Coles Express is using AI and in-store sensors to target customers with music and advertising considered most likely to induce purchases. 

After trialling Qsic’s platform in 20 Victorian stores, Coles Express has signed a five-year, multimillion-dollar deal to deploy the commercial streaming service to all 710 of its stores; each operating at Shell petrol stations.

Viva Energy, which owns Shell and Coles Express, said that ads across the convenience store chain would be “as unique and targeted” as its “3.6 million customer transactions a week.” 

Qsic’s in-store sensors, autonomous volume adjustment technology, ad campaign attribution and Qsic.ai, which measures the targeted audio content’s impact on transactions, will all be deployed.

The volume is automatically set in response to detected footsteps, the level of decibels in the environment and other real-time data. 

The content — both music and/or ads — is selected based on analyses of data about the weather, traffic and previous customer trends, which is used to predict when demand for specific products will be high on a store-by-store basis. 

How these selections affect customers’ purchasing habits is then analysed by Qsic.ai.

Qsic’s ‘campaign attribution' feature will also allow Coles Express to glean data on how effective its own proprietary audio content was, which can assist in commercialising and selling it to other retailers if Coles Express chooses to.